raineth

Toto in need of a haircut

I wouldn't bother calling the police. I had my male neighbour beating up his wife on our verandah. I called 000 straight away while my husband went out there and to try and stop it. And the police came 5 HOURS later We ended up getting her and her kids locked in our house while he rampaged out the front. So I can't imagine they'd bother at all to come out to a dog fight.

that is so precious what a gorgeous pair they make

I think at the very least the dog should be given a time out when any play gets too rough. Also maybe they should be generally focussing on training the dog to have a more calm state of mind. You can train and shape states of mind like you can a behaviour. Dogs who are of the hyper variety benefit a lot from that

unless I'm mistunderstanding you, that means that virtually nobody could walk giant dogs I have one dog who is the same as my weight and one who is ten kgs more than my weight. And these dogs are only 'small' giants. What about people with English Mastiff's who weigh more than 100 kgs? There are really not going to be that many people around who are going to physically be stronger than an English Mastiff.

yeah it would definitely be a shame to only cater for pet dog training especially as usually the most dedicated are into the more formal stuff. I just look around my neighbourhood and see so much misunderstanding and I think of how much better some dogs lives would be if their owners had gone to training. the people around the corner from me who got a GSD puppy and it is over a year old now and has been taken for one walk since the got it These people believe that if they take it for walks it will want to escape! What a dreadful life for any dog to never see the outside of its backyard. So much of this wouldn't happen if people attended training and actually learned something about their dog and built a relationship with their dog.

well exactly and if people can keep attending training clubs and continue to socialise their dogs, problems will be prevented. Lots of people don't even take their dog to puppy school. And then even out of the people who do, only a very small amount go on to do any further training with their dog. Not that I have any statistics, but that seems pretty clear to me. So that's why it would be good to see a shift to more people attending training and for clubs to also cater for the average pet owner as well as those who want to do more formal activities. That's where I'd like to see things headed but whether it will head that way or not? I have no idea.

I don't knwo if this is what you're after Corvus, but... I would like to see more clubs focussing on training for well behaved pets and making training more fun for the people. I think the club I go to has tried to start doing this this year. Previously it was more of the hour-of-paddock-bashing variety. Having a mastiff x this is just not relevant to me or him. He has about five minutes of work in him before he switches off. I just take him to keep up with his socialisation more than anything. Same with agility. Really we are not that interested in agility its just that its the only other thing offered and its suits him because we can do five minutes on and 20 minutes off. I would like to see games like the doggie version of musical chairs. Its fun and teaches some good skills at the same time. Recently our club did a town walk (walking up the main street and stopping for a while to have a coffee). It was great! I don't mean clubs shouldn't focus on Obedience, Agility etc. but I think it would be good for there to be a focus on what is needed for an average pet dog and getting people to understand their pet dog and spend time with them. A lot of pet dog owners start off going to puppy schools but don't continue classes because the focus becomes more on formal obedience; and they don't want to do that, and they don't find it fun. However I could be off the mark with this, afterall I'm really just responding to what goes on in my home town

When we go for a walk I often let my 8 year old walk our 60 kg dog. He is very well behaved, and she is very competent. He has no prey drive and he has good recall. He is very mild mannered and will do anything she tells him to. But I wouldn't let her walk him by herself; I certainly don't agree with kids walking dogs of any size by themselves. So often people see a big dog and they fail to see how well behaved it is. All they see is a large animal that frightens them.

what's interesting though is that it would cost me so much more to feed raw than a super premium like Nutro. I most certainly don't have the finances to feed raw. And that's not including the cost of purchasing and running a freezer that i would need to do it! how do you get it to cost less Nekhbet?

aww thanks I can do that!

I would just subtract quite a bit of his dinner and use high value treats like liver, chicken, and other straight meat treats I would probably avoid sausage type treats though. I often think that losing weight is more about eating less rather than eating hardly any fat. Unless he already has a very high fat diet ofcourse

Wow that difference is amazinf Bianca! Unfortunately I don't have an external flash But I was talking to Mr Raineth after this and we're going to consider getting some lamps for the house which we need anyway, but hopefully will mean if i am taking a photo in the jouse some lamp lighting will help to reduce the need for a flash. I have two members of the family with this problem. My daughter actually doesn't have any pigment in her retinas so if we sue a flash he glowing red eyes are spectacular and probably like nothing you've ever seen before and our dog with pale blue eyes isn't much better!

Digby has absolutely no interest in toys whatsoever. I have clicker trained him to interact with a ball - but he definitely isn't playing. It seems to me that he never had toys as a puppy and that no one played with him. He does however love to chase flies, and he likes to stalk mice. But he can walk past birds and all that with no the slightest hint of prey drive - it is not quashed but just not there at all. I definitely think Digby's lack of toy interaction as a pup has meant he is quite unable to understand that certain items can be toys. I think the fly catching thing, which can be a little obsessive, might be that way because it was one thing he actually had access to as a puppy to amuse himself. He has some scarring on his neck which seems to indicate that before he came to us he was a dog that spent a lot of his life tied up. So yeah i'm just saying that I do think that a dogs early experiences can have a large effect on whether they develop play drive and prey drive and what they develop it to.

Oh wow! Well done! Can't wait for more photos

1 - reshoot and turn off the flash or move it away from the camera, if possible. 2 - have everyone in the plane of focus. This will vary with your aperture, distance and focal length. Using a wider lens focal length will help as the DOF for a given distance is more than with a telephoto lens. There is a thread in here from a week or two ago that has a ton of info and a couple of links to help. If it's not possible, I concentrate on the most important eyes. 3 - don't forget you need to process your images for display. Most people will sharpen an image and that will help with the POP. Adjusting contrast, blacks and other things in post will also help. Starting with the sharpest lens you can and a sweet spot aperture and then go from there. wow! thank you so much Kja ;) that is really really helpful!

1. what do you do when your subject's pupil's come out so red that red-eye reduction can't fix the problem? 2. when photographing more than one subject, how do you get the focus points to go on everyone's eyes? is that even possible? if not what do you focus on instead? 3. I see many people here get the most amazing focus on their subject's eyes - the eyes almost pop out of the picture because they are in such detail. While i can get focus on the eyes I can't seem to get that to happen. Any tips for that? thank you in advance for any help ;) :rolleyes:

Harry the Hound is divine!!! The collar is perfect for him isn't it? I love looking in here at everyone's photos :rolleyes:

I have had my lovely mastiff x for over a year now. From the start we had him sleep in our bedroom. But a few days ago, after 14 months of sleep deprivation (he is the noisiest sleeper in the world), I decided that he would have to sleep in the loungeroom because I was just so so tired. I was falling asleep during the day! I took his bed out of the room (it was about 2 a.m.) layed it in the lounge room, gave him the command to go to it and.... voila! One dog who now sleeps in the lounge room :rolleyes: and one happier and more lively me ;) So all I'm saying is it might not be as hard as you think. Especially if he has his own bed and you have taught him a command that tells him he has to be on it. If you don't have that I'd work on it before changing him over. Another suggestion I heard (if he has his own bed) is to very very slowly move the bed. It might take a couple of months but eventually they'll be in the loungeroom. For example: Every few nights move the bed half a foot closer to the loungeroom. You may have the bed in some funny spots for a while (like the hallway or something); but eventually you'll end up with the dog where you want it, without them getting upset. Obviously the trick with this one is to go slowly.

fantastic photos I loved going through them! I imagine it would also be so hard to capture images at that speed!

the dogs in of my childhood were fed bones, scraps and tinned wet food. The were labradors and one lived to 15 and the other 14

that is pretty much exactly how I feel!

Oh how dreadful Poor Daisy I'm really hoping she is going to be o.k.

I keep about five days worth in the fridge with no problems (probably because its quite dried out) and the rest I'll store in the freezer

I got my first DSLR for christmas, its a Canon EOS 550d and I am having a great time with it. Its very easy to use and navigate and I like the quality of the pics I just need to become better at taking them